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Between You and Me: An Interview with Marisa Calin

You know that very specific joy you feel when you pick up a new book and everything just works? Your mood matches the tone of the book. You keep flipping back to the cover to enjoy how it fits the story more with each new chapter you read. You happen to be able to afford a big chunk of time, focus, and emotional investment when you first crack open the spine. And enough about you. The book! The writing draws you in from page one. You’re in love with the characters by page five. Something surprising yet inevitable happens in almost every scene. The structure impresses you. You laugh. You cry. You yearn. And at the end, you have questions that you know will never be answered—and you are okay with that. When you close the book you are amazed but unsatisfied because you now feel the gaping hole that true readers feel every time they finish a great book: You can’t imagine finding the above-catalogued joy ever again.

You know what I mean.

This happened to me with Marisa Calin’s debut novel, Between You and Me.

Between You and Me hits stores on Tuesday, August 7th. In advance of publication, Marisa was nice enough to answer a few questions for my blog. And her publisher was nice enough to contribute two copies of the book for me to give away to YOU. To enter to win, please leave a comment below sharing what you need for “the perfect reading experience” and I will choose two winners.

Happy reading! I hope you love the book as much as I do.

1. You did a beautiful job integrating the world of film/drama into your novel. What did you find inspiring about the screenplay/script format? Did it pose any structural challenges?

Firstly, thanks! I started by writing plays and screenplays. I’ve always been inspired to write because as an actor you interpret someone else’s characters, so it’s really exciting as a writer to create characters and relationships that reflect more personal experiences. There’s also something amazing about knowing that a novel is the last piece of the creative puzzle and people will be able to picture it exactly the way you tell it. So it seemed like the perfect starting point to take elements of a format I love for its vivid immediacy and tell a story as visually as possible. I started with the character, rather than the story. I knew that Phyre wanted to be an actress and that she sees her life in this sometimes self-consciously cinematic way. It was a fun point of view, to show Phyre’s subjective reality with just glimpses of a wider perspective. I stepped out of the screenplay framework to use a first person narrative because an unrequited crush is the most personal of experiences, ninety percent of which happens in your own head. So from any other perspective there isn’t even a story!

Since ideas have always come to me in pieces of dialog and in moments between characters, the scripted format also helped me play out those scenes in as concise and punchy a way as possible. The very present narrative of a screenplay lets you watch a story unfold moment by moment. That was also the greatest challenge; to keep it present. Every scene has a setting – Phyre is always somewhere, doing something – so I started every scene with what can she see, hear and feel right now? That helped keep my meandering thoughts in check, the kind you write late at night and think are brilliant and read the next morning and think ‘blablabla’. So while there were surprisingly few challenges, structurally the balance was to make sure that everything that needed to be said was there. Screenplays are visual not emotional, so with the help of an amazing editor, we’ve hopefully married Phyre’s inner monologue with the scripted elements I loved using. Above all, I thought it would be fun. And it was the greatest creative experience.

2. Your decision to use the gender-neutral second person in all interactions between Phyre and her best friend was innovative and moving. Can you talk about this choice?

Sure. As the story took shape, I realized very quickly that I couldn’t identify YOU’s gender if I didn’t want to write a story about gender. So as not to make a commentary on who we should end up with in our lives, I really wanted to resist giving Phyre a picture perfect handsome boy ending to put everything to rights. Then her crush on Mia could be read as a phase that she overcomes to embrace normality. The ambiguity meant that I could preserve the validity of a straight crush, but more importantly write about finding real love, not about with whom. A story about genuine love versus the power of imagined love was just as interesting to me. And I hope people will finish the book feeling that her choice ultimately didn’t need to be about gender. I knew who YOU was for me, but this way I could let the reader decide for themselves.

Fortunately, the idea also played wonderfully into my goal to write something inclusive, that as many people as possible might relate to. I wanted readers to find familiar emotions and recognize pieces of themselves in the characters, so I tried to leave space for the feelings to resonate and not give so much detail to the setting.

3. We all encounter people who help us grow, who push us toward our truest selves. Who in your life has been a “Mia?”

Can you believe no one I know personally has asked me that yet? There have been two Mia’s in my life and I’m grateful that I knew them. Those crushes led me to recognize that a person can be inexplicably special to you, and that’s something you can’t choose whether or not to feel. But I never told a single person how I felt. Neither of my Mia’s were teachers, they were both girls a few years older than me. So I was really more friends with them, and certainly never dreamt of telling either of them. Well, I dreamt of it, in a great declarative ‘I’m completely in love with you’ kind of way, but I never actually considered it. So there were probably therapeutic reasons for writing the book. I think they’d both fall off a chair if they knew how I had felt. The experience of writing about it has given me a sense of coming full circle and I’ve been tempted to tell them recently when I never have been before. Will I? Probably not. Maybe. I expect not… I wonder if lots of people I used to know are sitting there thinking, is it me? Well, two of you are right. How funny! Thanks. You inspired a book. I’m blushing. There are a few small clues in there. Any other similarities to people, places and events are strictly coincidental! Maybe.

4. You gracefully navigate the fear of being different–without making the world of LGBT prejudice a prominent element in the book. How did you acknowledge the reality of ignorance or closed-mindedness without letting it darken the bright heart of your love story?

I love this question. That was my very reason for writing this book. My hope was to normalize and validate the feelings of a crush without the need to make definitive sweeping statements about who we are. I felt sure the reality of closed-mindedness, and the equally powerful fear of closed-mindedness, would be present in the simple anxiety of giving voice to a feeling. My crushes at Phyre’s age were primarily just about the purest of admiration. The feeling was so positive and inspiring, but there was clearly something about it that meant I never expressed it to anyone. I never heard my friends talk about similar feelings, so never put myself out there emotionally or made myself vulnerable. Not feeling able to share in my own life was acknowledgment enough of prejudice, so it was easy to reflect that in the book without making it a focus. For Phyre, when you strip away the fears that come with what other people think, she is left, as you so perfectly put it, with the bright heart of her love story. The emotion of feeling love for someone, even of the same sex, is as pure and simple in your own heart as it is for anyone else.

5. Phyre’s name is so evocative. How did you choose it?

That’s such a fun question to think about. I started with her name. I didn’t find the character and then hunt for her name. ‘Phyre’ felt volatile, and ignitable. She’s in a key vulnerable place where we really start having a sense of who we are. There were so many things about the image that I liked. From kindling the spark of first love, to flames that you can’t smother even when you’re afraid of them. Sometimes a fire will burn and there’s really nothing you can do about it, which is what she’s facing. Those reasons might not have been so clear to me when I was on the first draft, but I noticed more and more that her name encompassed everything I wanted it to. The book was called ‘Phyre’ and only ever found a new name when it was pretty much on its way to the printer, so it was very much part of its identity for me.

6. What can we look forward to next from Marisa Calin?

That’s an excellent question. I’ve asked myself the same thing. As an actor, I will shortly be going into the studio to record another audio book, Sapphire Blue, the second in a trilogy by Kirsten Gier. And as a writer, I’m on a second novel. Its pretty different from Between You & Me. I started with a story rather than seeing where the characters would take me, so it’ll be an interesting challenge. It’s more plot driven, but still real life. I’ll leave the dystopia that I love to read to those who do it best, and angels, I will leave to the greatest angel of all. You. Thanks so much for giving me the chance to answer these amazing questions. They’ve been a pleasure to think about.

Marisa Calin is an actress and novelist. She grew up in Bath, England and moved to New York City to train at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She tried her hand at plays and screenplays before her love of a good book inspired her to take charge of every facet of the creative picture and tackle a novel. The only thing better than being absorbed in the world of a film for two hours is being absorbed in the lives of characters for the duration of a book. She lives in Greenwich Village and writes from what she knows–memories of her not so distant teenhood.

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44 comments:

I enjoy reading so much; especially about love stories. It fascinates me to readhow those different forms of love grow, wither, die, regrow, and thrive in all the books I’ve read. I normally don’t end up picking the books I read most of the time. I know that seems strange. 🙂 Most of the times the books end up picking me, and I always find that I end up loving them because it was exactly what I needed! Although what I need for the perfect reading experience is to go somewhere quiet and relaxing; away from the noise and chaos of my siblings. I need to have my tummy comfortably full and potty business done, so that I may just curl up and enjoy whatever story it is that I have at the moment.

For the perfect experience I need a comfortable chair, a drink by my side, and a quiet, cool place. I like to read novels of true merit when I will be alone and without distractions. I crave those times when a novel is so good that hours will pass by before I even realize it. When I find a novel like that, I amafraid to read it again because I don’r want to change my first impression.

What I need for the perfect reading experience is just an awesome book. I find that if a book captures my attention / interest (like every single 1 of the fallen books!) then I usually zone out from reality and find myself up all hours of the night. Connection with the characters is also a plus, I find I fall for them just as much as the lead characters of the story. That for me is the perfect reading experience. 🙂

A good book for me needs a good stor line and good characters you need to be able to think.. Yeah i think i know what is going to happen next yet it was completely different from what you expected. It also has to have the story line that makes you not be able to put it down because every bit is a good bit, there are no boring bits. For me it also has to be written in a way that i connect to. Dont ask me why because..Hell.. I dont actually know but its just that feeling that gets you going. There is also the feeling of ‘If I was that person I would have done it completely different’.
Hope you Consider me.
I’m a great fan
Sincerely
-Shannon 🙂

What I would need for “the perfect reading experience” is a place that is eerily quiet so by then I could jump into the books atmosphere, setting and imagine myself right in the middle of that certain scene(s). Not only do I need a place that is quiet, I would also need a type of mattress, couch, or a bed even that is comfortable enough so I could relax and enjoy the ride! Last not but not least, a perfect reading experience isn’t perfect without my type of book. Therefore I would need a book that has romance, mystery and some paranormal thing going on. :’) This is my perfect reading experience.

The perfect reading experience for myself is the feeling of being teleported into a whole new place and whilst visiting that place I feel things I have never felt before. All the problems of the world just disapear and I am safe in a world of imagination. A unique reading experience for me also includes an escape route out of the troubles in my life and into another person or characters shoes, feeling their feelings and gathering their way of life because when I finish reading, my troubles don’t feel like troubles anymore. That is the true beauty of reading, being able to escape and forget your emotions by feeling other people’s. The feeling of connecting with an author of a book is one of the most beautiful feelings in the world.. it’s crazy how a simple line in a book can instantly just like magic make you feel more understood than you’ve ever been before. Those reasons and many, many, many more make the perfect reading experience for me.

What I need for a perfect reading experience is a book that chooses me, not me who chooses the book. I love books that jump out of the shelves and scream “read me!”, because then I know I’m in for a whirlwind ride. And when I find those books, I always get transported, either finding an answer I was seeking in my own life or a titbit of insight that I bring with me into future situations. They either keep me grounded, guiding me back to where I need to be, or take me to another world, where I so desperately need to go sometimes. The perfect read is whatever experience I need for that time in my life. It does not matter what the book is about, so long as it is memorable long after I put it down and fits into my lifestyle, not derailing me and putting me on the wrong path. Writing can have amazing effects on a person, and that is all I ask for. Nothing else matters.

My perfect reading experience is when a book completely consumes me, to the point that I literally cannot put the book down. I want to feel as though I am living this book through and through and be completely devoted to the book. I like to get lost in the story and lose track of time when reading. When I read, nothing can distract me from an amazing book. That’s the perfect experience. Becoming lost, where nothing in the world matters more.

What I need for the perfect reading experience is preferably a paperback copy of the book, my beanbag, sunlight shining in through the window and a cup of tea. Of course, the book also needs to be my favorite genre which is, to be very specific, road trip books. There is just something about road trips, it’s about winding down to the destination ahead but are you ever going to reach it?

Perfect reading experience? Its really simple…quiet, rainy day, the most comfortable window seat you ever did see, a fantastic book that once it grabs you…it doesn’t let go until you blink and realize that you’ve been in it for countless hours, so immersed, the world might have crashed and burned around you without your knowledge…simple 🙂

To me reading is like entering another world. The people, your routines, your self, no longer exist. Instead you become a whole new character and see what they see, hear what they hear. The characters they fall for, your heart does too and the grief of a fallen friend hits you like a knife in the heart.
To finish a book with sequels is torture when you can’t afford them! The excitement when I bought Rapture, I felt like crying with happiness, like I’d found my lost soul. I even dreamt I was Luce in ancient Rome flying but being found by the Romans and Daniel comforting me as we burned eternally at a stake in pain. We then had to destroy everyone by revealing our inner angel.
Maybe I’m just slightly obsessed with Fallen? : )
It’s a great experience to make friends in a book, you don’t feel so alone tagging along with the book characters.
Thank you if you chose to read my perfect book experience!

Describing the perfect reading experience is possibly the most difficult question you could have asked as there are so many different aspects that can make an experience amazing. I love it if a book takes me to a different time and place because it can teach me something about the world or about myself and human nature. I love it if a book inspires me to learn more (for instance, Lesley Downer’s The Last Concubine inspired me to follow a course in Japanese history). Another great experience can be when a book is set in a place I know yet teaches me something I wasn’t aware of yet (C.J. Omololu’s Transcendence pointed out that I missed a really cool building at the Tower of London, now I can’t wait to go back there and learn more about the place). Books that inspire me to learn more, see more and understand more of the world make for perfect reading experiences. When they also have memorable, identifiable characters, good solid plots and keep up a decent tempo, I won’t be able to put the book down and will easily read through the night no matter what time I have to be up the next day.

What I need for the perfect reading experience is a good story. I love getting so lost in a book that I forget where I am or what is going on around me. I need a book that pulls me in from the very beginning wtih characters that jump off the page. The kind of characters that pull at your heartstrings or make you angry or make you jealous…just characters that feel real. I feel sad when those stories are over because I want to stay in their world just a little longer.

I tend to live inside my head, so I like the extended monologue or character study as mediums for storytelling, especially combined with film. I am writing a screenplay that I hope to get produced someday. My ideal reading experience involves an intense relationship with a book that is a little challenging in the sense that it demands some effort from the reader by leaving things up for interpretation and experimenting with form or language. It convincingly incorporates specialist knowledge on a particular subject (a field in science, a job, a sport, an art form, etc.), and makes me laugh occasionally.

What I need for a perfect reading experience is a book I can get drawn into and loose time in! I need a cozy spot a glass of tea to! I love reading books that go through so many emotions and you see it all played out! There’s nothing better than reading!

hi ya i would like to say that your books are amazingly writen and i couldnt stop reading them was wondering when your next one would be out i know i now i look forward to more of your stories with enjoyment thank you so much big hugs loving reader xx

I would have to say that for me the perfect reading experience takes place in my bay window seat that looks out onto the beautiful countryside. I would need some hot chocolate by my side and hard back book in my lap. [For some reason I’ve always been partial to hardback books =)] The perfect reading experience is calm and quiet. It lets me fall into a story and get lost in its pages.

Thanks for checking out my post and hopefully you pick my reading experience!

To be honest, all I need for the perfect reading experience is to be on a hammock by the lake and it is heaven. I like the peace and serenity of being by a quiet lake. I also love the smell. It helps me to get lost in a great book, not that I really need that 🙂 A great book would be a great addition. I love a great love story that pulls at my heart strings and allows me to become that character. I am transported to a new place and it is wonderful. So I guess, a perfect reading experience for me would just to have a great book that transports me into the world of the book.

I´ve been a bookworm ever since I was taught how to read. I used to have an excellent teacher that used to tell me how books could takes us somewhere else, how we could live the wildest adventures anytime of the day. Today, a perfect reading expierence consists on snuggling with my dear husband, getting a good love story and dive into it, leaving the real world behind and find myself between a true love (mine) and an dreamy love story (from the book).

For me, the perfect reading experience doesn’t matter the location or the time of day. I just need a quiet space to relax and do something I love.
I love characters I can connect with and cheer for, but my favorites are the more complex ones that are deemed “evil” or the “bad guy,” but always have more to them than what meets the eye. These characters can be the most interesting to me.
I love a detailed setting so I can feel like I’m in the story seeing what the characters see.
I love a good plot line with lots of twists and turns to keep me guessing. I enjoy being suprised!
When I read, I love being able to forget all my problems and worries and just get sucked into another world, if only for a little while 🙂
I love when a story makes me laugh, or cheer, or gasp. I love when I get a knot in my stomach knowing something big is going to happen, or when my heart starts racing because the plot is so suspenseful and intense and exciting. The best for me though, is when a story makes me cry. Just getting that much emotion out of a fictional story is great. I love crying at a good ending, even though long after I turn the last page, I feel empty inside thinking “what am I going to do now?”. But then that means I get to go and find a new adventure to jump into and connect with characters, fall in love with a good setting, laugh out loud, and cry like a baby. Reading and really falling in love with a great story is a cycle that I can go through again and again. That’s what I love about reading, and it’s what makes the whole experience perfect.

The perfect reading experience for me is finding a book that will allow you to step into an alternate world while still allowing you to relate it to your own world in a way. Everyone needs to escape from reality from time to time and reading a good book is the perfect way. However, escaping entirely doesn’t satisfy me as I like a book that can touch my life in a special way. Even if it’s simply one line that will inspire me, or the main character who is experiencing emotions that are similar to mine. The perfect reading experience can not be defined in few words, in fact a book would need to be written to define it, but in my view, it has to help you escape and better your life at the same time.

My perfect reading experience is finding somewhere comfy to sit or lay down then taking a nice book and using it to escape to another world for an hour or two (or more if I’m lucky!). Something that has a little bit of a love story but isn’t a straight out romance. I need some action, conflict and most of all emotion so I feel like I can truly connect with the character and see what it is that they’re thinking. And if a book as all that and it can have me saying “I didn’t know that was going to happen!” That is an ideal book for me. I love not being able to guess how a book is going to play out. Plus surprises are AWESOME!

My prefect reading must about the supernatural (angels, vampires, demos, ghosts ect.) With action and protecting their loved ones. Most of all their must be romance, where two people fall deeply inlove and can’t be without eachother. I enjoy the romance between the lovers.

When i pick up a book i immediately wonder about the characters and thier intentions what they are going after. When i read every chapter i just love the way it describes every detail the juicy details make think that I’m watching a fascinating movie my imagination increases and makes me feel like one of the characters and wonder more about them. I always read on my bed and hear music that makes my reading more…epic. When i pick up my new book the thrill starts the chillls emerge and the next time i know I’m in a whole other world. Sometimes i feel like I’m exactly right there with the characters. Its hard to drop a book when you come back to reality it just to hard to drop such a creative book that someow or in a way you can relate to everything and fall in love with the adventures the romance the thrill and the most the deep secrets that hides a mysteroius aloof.

When I start to read a book, I always become really giddy and excited: what does the book hold in its pages? What are the characters like? Will I enjoy the story? When my hand skims along the spine of the book, and feels the texture of the book cover, I feel as though I’m ready to open up a new part of my mind and enter it. For my perfect reading environment, I usually relax on my bed in a quiet, hoping that no one disrupts me. I usually light incense to calm me down as well, to get into a new book that is not apart of a series I have already read. When I read a book, my imagination devours the words I read, and transforms it into vivid pictures and movie strips in my mind. I just love reading new stories and novels.

What I need for a perfect reading experience is somewhat lengthy story. It needs to be easy to fall deep into the plot and the details and everything that the book is. There needs to be love and enjoyment and excitement. All of that would be enjoyed in a big pluch blanket in the most quiet room in the house. Overall what I need is something to get lost in and completely forget about the world around me.

I swear to you, that the best reading experience I’ve ever had, actually now that I’m thinking about it, one that I always have, is sitting on my couch with my amazon parrot. He would either be sitting on my shoulder quietly while music is playing softly in the background, crawling around on my shoulders or sitting on my lap while I’m petting him. It’s such a glorious luxury to read with my best friend, especially if i have a Smirnoff ice at hand, but only one, or eventually I wont remember what I read.
…
Yes, I’m speaking from experience.
xox

The perfect reading experience is when you literally get pulled into the new and wonderful world of the book you are reading. It’s when you can feel all of the the feelings the character is feeling. Weather it’s sad, happy, scarred, or loved. I love reading books that i can relate too, because then i can truly understand it. For me, i shouldn’t have to make my self read the book, the book makes me want to read it. When i get into a really good book i can’t even put it down. This to me is the perfect reading experience.

What I need for the perfect reading experience is a good storyline and good characters.
The storyline needs to be full of life, surprises and maybe secrets that make you feel curious but also a little uneasily and tremble and keep me on tenterhooks till the end. It should make me feel like if I put the book down I’d miss something, leave a little part of my soul behind and therefore I can’t fall asleep :). In addition, I think it’s also a little important that the story deals with a fascinating and (completely) new “topic”. E.g. I can’t read any books about vampires anymore after the “vampire boom” since twilight.
So if I saw THE book and I opened it it’d be like “yeah that’s the book I’ve been searching for, a part of me I’ve never realized before”.

The characters should be authentic, interesting and realistic. I think it’s very important to understand them and to be able to follow their intentions. I need to be able to identify myself in them, to fall for them although they ain’t that perfect or even evil, to fall For every single word that is written about them! I don’t need a “perfect” place to read. Of course, I love listening to music while reading a book and when it’s quiet and rainy and I’m sitting at the window while doing so. But if the book was really well-written I’d dive into a new different world full of life and my surrounding wouldn’t matter anymore. 🙂

Reading books is my escape in the harsh reality of this world. When I read a book, I do not expect what would happen next, I just let myself be engrossed in the story. And I absolutely love love stories with a lot of twists, action and all the suspense and thrill. I squeal when the hero and the heroine kiss, I become frustrated with the cruelty of the antagonist. The weirdest thing is, I enjoy my reading time the most when the class is on. 😀 The adrenaline rush when I always almost get caught by my teacher is priceless:P I let the characters play in my mind while reading them and I envision myself being there in their scenes ! And when I almost get to the last pages of the book, I slow down my reading pace, yeah, so I still would have a reason to pick up the book later. However, If I was not contented, I’d read the book over and over again :DD
My Perfect reading experience for me is simple. It is every time that I read a book and the whole fun and adventure I would experience along characters in every page !

honestly I like love stories I’ve read too many books and the best I have read is the saga fallen attracts me such books as I can dream eyes open and live stories cualquira you wish you happen to read is my favorite because it allowed me to live more life, open my imagination and makes me forget my life and live in a magical world full of stories where love reigns, wonderful stories, gistorias that marked my life today and gave me many lessons that I use today, whenever I read I like to be alone quietly and alone with my headphones and my music.

Whenever I get a new book, my life starts to evolve around finishing the novel. When I start reading I try to think like the person/character who’s in the situation, and my mind works with the words to describe how and what is happening. Sometimes when I’m so caught up in a book or a whole series I dream of the characters because they’re in my mind to much of the time. Or I just daydream of them. I yearn to learn the juicy details of the story and how it ends. But whenever I finish I always feel sad because I know I will never find a novel quite like that one. And I yearn for more details of the story it’s self.

Reading is the only thing I am not obliged to do in my daily rutine. It’s when I really start enjoying life. The place where I come across the images of the certain author whose book I have been reading at that moment. It is having a free pass to explore that person’s mind. There I share moments of love, hatred, romance, suspense and anything else that has been printed by the writer on that piece of paper. I loved the Fallen books. I live in Turkey and I did not have the chance to get the last book when it was released. So I ordered it online. When it was in my hands ten days later, I first smelled the pages as I usually do it. I took in the scent of it and sat down on my reading chair. Then I started to still my thirst for it. It was more than I had expexted. I wish life could be as simple as this. Having your comfy reading place, the book you long for and all the time you want to read it. Thanks

My perfect reading expirience is just to have a great book a hand and fall deep into it.
My favorite books are actually your books from the fallen. This next comment might not have to do with “My perfect reading expirience but it would mean so much to me if you took it into thought. I’ve read that you haven’t cast a role for Luce in the movie. So I thought about who I always picture in my mind as Luce when I read the books and I thought of Lights(literally lights) that’s her name, she is an amazing singer and I think she captures the perfect image of Luce really well. Please take this into consideration and look up “Lights” “Lights Siberia(her album)” or look her up on twitter “lights” well I hope you read this comment and if you do look her up it’ll mean a lot

My perfect reading experience is being able to loose myself in a really good book. To get my perfect reading experience I’ve got to have a book where i connect to the characters emotionally and being able to understand their feelings and how some situations in life can really make you think. When they laugh you laugh, when they cry you cry and most of all when they feel love you’ve got to feel it too. After finishing the book your filled with this everlasting joy of a great read but also faced with a little disappointment wondering would another book be able to re-create this perfect reading experience.

My perfect reading experience is lying on the couch with a great book in hand sipping coffee and escaping inside the book. During this experience I feel as if I am living the experiences the characters are. When a book grabs you to that degree it is a perfect experience.

Everyone who knows me knows i love reading books. My perfect reading experience in my is sitting in my bedroom with the lights off just the lamp shade on and nothing else. It kind of builds the atmosphere and It kind of feels like I’m in the book watching everything happening.

I used to travel alot and I had so much time for reading. It was never a problem getting comfy in a big chair outside with some really good background music. Now with school, work, and a social life it can be really hard to just have the time. What I learned is that its not about where your at, if there is any sound or if there is too much sound. Its all about how good the book is. If you fall into, you can fall into anywhere. Theses days I just make sure I carry my book with me and read when I have a moment. I love to get lost in a book, when I have a busy, stressful day, there is no better escape then picking one up where ever you are. Have a good day!

Dear Lauren,
Personally, books are the greatest thing in the world. I love a fresh new book that has that unmistakable crisp smell to it the minute you open it. My books become my friends, a part of me, just like the Fallen series. They make you laugh, they make you cry and they are always there when you need to escape the chaos of our modern world today. I dont believe that there is a perfect “spot” to read. Of course you do need silence but other than that, no matter where you are, no matter what situation you are in; if you have book, everything simply falls into place like a puzzle. Many dont understand the beauty of books and it saddenns me to know that they are missing out on an experiance that you cannot get anywhere else. Books teach you about the wonders of life. They guide you through tough times and help you escape to a whole new world where no one can touch you. Books to me are a part of life, they introduce me to new things and teach me about anything nd everything. they portray friendship, faith and love. When I finish a series like the Fallen series, I cry like I have lost a part of me but soon realize that that part is never lost, its always there inside of you. Without books, I would not be who I am today.

Thank you so much for writing the series that changed my life and will forever be a part of it : )

My perfect reading experience lies in “READING”….it gains me acess to lives other than my actual one…i live the life of the characters of my book, i could feel their emotions run through me, i could feel that sprouting innocent love of Luce running through her viens that was so naive, i could feel those dark, black shadows spiriling and twisting around, i could actually feel that intense love in those voilet grey eyes…… it makes me go through that agony of guilt that luce feels, i could feel the pain luce went through when she saw Penn dead, i could feel the sadness of even spending a moment when Daniel leaves…Alas, it makes me so proud and lucky to be loved by such a perfect angel…
Reading to me is like entering into a totally different world and makes me do all those things and feel all those things which i haven’t done in my real life…. 🙂

For a perfect reading experience all i need to have is a book that has unexpected story, it must be higher than a reader thought it would be. it must be different with the reader’s prediction of what will happen next… unexpected in a sense that it will surprise and will make readers continue reading because of excitement and curiosity. every page of the book should have a thrill and the story should not be just plain or common, if it’s a common concept then it should have a twist to make readers shock. it should not be like the common stories, same problem and same conclusion. adding some twists will make me become addicted into it. the story should not be just like an expository without rising actions and climax and the ending will just make me feel disappointed because I didn’t feel the rising actions it was just like a straight line and in the end you feel not satisfied cause you didn’t get/ didn’t read what you wanted.like the book i read before it wasn’t what i expected to be, it has a really good concept, but, like what i’m saying, like a straight line and in the end, a tragic conclusion! so the story just fell, i’m really disappointed.

but not all the time i’m disappointed with books, it didn’t stop me from reading books because FALLEN came into my life, it gave me satisfaction. It’s true that “you cannot judge a book by its cover” because the content of FALLEN is over my expectation! I really love that book, it made me become a book lover.

So, that’s all I wanted from a book and to summarize it, all i wanted is “FALLEN novels” <3

The best book experience for me would have to be the characters, the plot/scheme and the type of book. I like how the setting can be ANYWHERE in the world, how it could be in Ireland or America or close to home like Australia. I love how characters can look weak and vulnerable but have a twist and are strong and powerful. I love how the characters have twists to their personalities. I like how you can have many different types of books that have a mix of things. For example a thriller with romance and comedy, or like the Fallen series how it’s full of romance, with suspense and thriller in it. I absolutely love plots/schemes how you think you know how it’s going to end and then it has a shocking twist changing the ending. Because it gives you that extra boost wanting to read on to see if the new ending will be better than the ending that you had been wanting. That really gets me into a book along with good music pumping in the background that suits the mood of the book. These are some of the things that give me a good book experience and it’s one of the reasons why I read books. Because I know I can lose myself in it and journey into a new world with new characters to love or fall in love with. In each and every single book I read I love the characters and I love how I can feel like I’m there with them or I’m that character going on those adventures with them or being there with them. That IS the best book experience I could ever have.

You really make it seem really easy together with your presentation however I to find this topic to be actually one thing that I think I’d never understand. It seems too complicated and very wide for me. I am looking ahead for your subsequent publish, I’ll try to get the grasp of it!